Tying health care costs and taxes to our behavior is usually met with resistance because people feel their particular vice is targeted while so many others aren’t taxed at all. These taxes do reduce these unhealthy behaviors though, cigarette smoking has been cut in half since the increase in taxes for instance.
This documented behavior change prompted the Urban Instituteto join with the University of Virginia to see if there were strategies that could be transferred to the problem of obesity. Studies are beginning to show obesity can be a greater health risk than smoking or heavy drinking. The University and Institute’s findings were released last week in a publication entitled, Reducing Obesity: Policy Strategies from the Tobacco Wars.
Taxing sugar and snack products could be part of the answer to the problem, the study found, as well as nutrition labels and reducing or banning advertising. Most importantly a 10 percent tax on these foods would generate $500 billion over 10 years and would fund half of the current health care proposals. A 10 percent tax on just sugared drinks would raise $10 billion a year. And while there is always opposition to increases in taxes, particularly sales taxes, these taxes are completely within the control of the individual and if one chooses to indulge in unhealthy habits, well at least you’re paying for the consequences yourself. It would probably be a smart idea to tax all bad habits that lead to hospitalization, from snack food to fast food to liquor to tobacco to cars and even guns. We might even be able to raise enough money to provide health care to everyone with no additional costs. And who could object to that?
Crosspost: http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/...